The governor is talking and acting like a possible presidential candidate, however. He’s headed to New Hampshire — home of the 2016 campaign's first presidential primary — for an event Friday. And in Thursday’s speech he talked a lot about foreign policy.

He zeroed in on the threat posed by ISIS, the Islamic State that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria, and has shown the world how brutal it is by beheading American journalist James Foley.

“They need to be eliminated, and they need to be eliminated now,” Perry said.

“All options have to be open” in dealing with this threat, he said.

America must participate in a “sustained campaign” to destroy ISIS forces, Perry said. That means more air strikes, special operations, intelligence activities and advisory support for Iraqi forces. It means airlifting heavy weapons to the Kurds. And it means not taking the use of American combat troops off the table, Perry said.

That, he acknowledged, is not what Americans want to hear after more than 12 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that’s “where we are.”

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